Hello all three of you who actually read this. 
It’s been a while but I’m back to put up a quick video I was just linked.
Some guy spent over a year traveling all over the world videotaping himself dancing. It’s kind of fun and is almost 100% guaranteed to cure your soul.
My student teaching semester is coming to close. Less than two weeks of actual student contact left. There’s still a ton of stuff to get done before the end of the semester, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’ve started filling out job applications and end even went out and bought a couple of new suits to look all snazzy in when interviewing.
I had a lot of fun and have learned a lot during my student teaching, but I have to say I’m glad it’s over. I have never felt so exhausted or worn out on a constant basis for so long before. I’ve been so busy I haven’t even written anything new for the Malicious Monocle story. That will change. Ideas have been percolating in the back of my head the whole time even if I wasn’t writing them down anywhere.
Well, back to work. I still have a few lectures to plan and a couple of tests to create.
I’d seen some photos of this about a year and half ago. It’s video footage of a puppet show that was put on in London. However, the puppets include a 40-ft. tall elephant and a two-storey tall marionette of a girl. I ran across a link to some video footage of it and decided to post it. I think the elephant just looks cool. I wish I could have seen the show.
I’m pretty sure I’m at the same point all of the other student teachers are at right now - counting down the days until Spring Break and a little bit of a rest. I’m exhausted. I can’t seem to ever get ahead of the work I need to do for this and every time I think I may have pulled a little ahead, I find out about something I forgot to do.
I was sick a couple of weeks ago as well. That slowed me down to a crawl. I’d get home from school and just want to crash. I didn’t get any papers graded or much else done in the evenings. I’ve just about caught up from that now, but I won’t really be able to say I’ve caught up until sometime Sunday night probably.
Next week marks the end of my first placement. After Tuesday next week I will be slowly transitioning away from the front of the classroom and letting my co-op take his room back over. I’ve enjoyed working with him and his class. I’ve also enjoyed meeting the rest of the teachers from the 8th grade and working with them as well. I can only hope the 7th grade teachers are about as equally unified as the 8th grade teachers are.
Needless to say with as exhausted as I’m always feeling, I haven’t done any writing on the monocle. I did come up with another fun bit of alliterative clothing though. The “Dastardly Dagged sleeve”. I have a sentence written for it, but nothing else to really go with that little sentence.
My 2nd formal observation is this Thursday. I’m not ready for it. I’m pretty sure I’ll do ok, but I can’t really say I’m ready for it. I just want to sleep for a week or two.
In preparation of actually having some free time again sometime in the future, I picked up Guitar Hero III for my Wii. I also hoped on Ebay and picked up a cheap wireless guitar for my PS2 for whenever I pick up the GH games for that platform.
Yeah, that’s enough time away from being productive. Back to work. Sleep beckons, but it’s not going to happen. The know in my shoulder will probably see to that.
The little rotters have gone and given me some sort of bug. I’ve spent the weekend with a sore throat and feeling like crap. I don’t want to call in sick, because there are a limited number of times I can do that while student teaching. I’d much rather plow on and try do everything I can.
However, I am going to ask my co-op to take over the teaching tomorrow. I’ll spend the day finishing writing the test for Thursday and working on stuff for next week. If he won’t teach, then I’m going to probably kill my throat trying to be heard over their talking.
Today had all of the makings of an awesome day. There was a high chance of a snow day and I’d ended up watching the BBC feed on the primary results rather late. No snow day. To be fair, the roads weren’t looking all that bad this morning, but everyone knew the bad weather was still coming. By 10 this morning it was clear that the weather was going to be really bad by the end of the school day. Maybe we would be given a half-day? Nope.
The snow came and it came down really hard. It came and it came and it came. The windows of the classroom were almost completely covered by the blowing snow. School started without about half the students absent. About half of those left over the course of the day as well as parents came and picked them up. Then it took me over a half an hour to dig my car out of the parking lot which hadn’t been plowed at all during the day. Well, except for during the last period when some students were taken outside to shovel and clear off cars. Unfortunately it didn’t look like they did the lot I was parked in.
Sitting at home wasn’t on my list of things to do tonight, but that’s exactly what I’ve done. Well, except for the time I’ve spent outside digging my car out of the driveway where it was stuck when I got home and then clearing the driveway as well. With the shoveling I haven’t even managed to get any work done on my lesson plans. There’s still a couple of hours though, so I may yet get somewhere.
Grr. I hope tomorrow goes better than today did.
One kind of nice thing. I found out the science teacher in my house is married to a guy I kind of knew back in High School. He’s a professional artist now. I’m always seeing a painting of his at my favorite coffee shop. I wonder if he recalls who I am.
Today was my first observation as a student teacher. It went rather well. My university supervisor sat in on the second class of the day. It isn’t one of the classes I’ve started teaching, but I do participate in the teaching of the class and help out where I can. The form she filled out for my file looked good. It was all upbeat. Her big concern really seemed more about if I looked comfortable. If by this point I still wasn’t very comfortable in the class, I think she might have taken me aside to have a good talk.
I’m working away at my lesson plans and it looks as though I will be taking the classes over completely by about Wednesday next week at the latest. I have most of what I will be teaching planned out, but I need to make it fit into a RIO lesson plan for when my supervisor comes to observe. I need at least three of them set up, but may have to do a fourth at this time. My first formal observation is set for Monday the 18th of February, so whether I will be able to use one of my base three RIOs for her observation will hinge on when exactly I take the classes over.
I still haven’t heard anything from the principal about if I will be allowed to take over the gaming club at the school. I’m trying to decide if I should email him on my own or have a couple of the students go plead their case.
It looks as though we will have another snow day tomorrow. I’ve been watching the BBC News covering the American Primary races tonight while drinking a pot of coffee. If there isn’t a snow day tomorrow, I will be a sleepy social studies panda.
Another video.
I’ve seen pictures and video of one of the other events this group did. This one is just awesome in its simplicity and execution. I wish I could join in with some of their events.
The seminar class I have this semester is requiring us to write a poem about student teaching. I could have gotten away with a simple Haiku, but that would have felt like cheating. So, instead I wrote a more full-length poem. I’m posting it here because it’s a pretty good one and it’s probably the first actual poem I’ve written in a decade or more. I gave up on poetry as a means to expression a long, long time ago.
Well, here it is:
Ode to Student Teaching
The sleeper awakens
(Grecian Urns can go to hell)
The electronic warble of the alarm wanders
It wanders about the room poking and probing
Probing for an undisturbed ear
Its only purpose in wandering to disturb
‘Neath the homemade quilt from grandma something is spied
Look!
A weak spot! A chink in the quilted armor
An elbow lays bare and uncovered
The warble waddles delicately along the arm
Turning ‘round the other way when the fingers are tipped
The shoulder is crested after finding a purchase in the wrinkled dermis
Peering into the quilted twilight an earlobe is sighted
Now begins the battle across the collar
No ring around here
Though a ring would make travel simpler than just the dermis
One final swing from the earlobe into the canal
The warble swings its pickaxe forged of decibels
The pickaxe shrieks as it arcs through the air
The now warbling shriek slips past the eardrum
It now bores and digs until the brain is found
An arm flashes out from under grandma’s hand-made quilt
Stabbing downwards, the warble is silenced
Bleary eyes rise up to check the time
A grunt, a groan and the sleeper is awakened
This sleeper is not the base of the pillar
He is not the shadow of a mouse on the moon
He is a modern-day apprentice, a servant indentured
Lo! He is a Student Teacher!
The Journey through the Urban Wilderness
(Without Snake Plissken to guide me)
The student is running late
Too many stabs at the snooze
Too long checking e-mail
Too long in the shower
Running to the car
A quick detour to the front porch for the paper
A quick stop at Mc D’s for some tasty breakfast
A quick zip, zig and zag to the school
Entering the Lot
A lot slalom (not Salem’s Lot) begins
Left to miss the oblivious children
Right to miss the oblivious parents
Chunk Ka-Chunk
Chunk Ka-Chunk
Speed bumps go by
Exhaust system is probably gone by now too
The parking lot slalom ends
The final bus passed
The final distracted parent avoided
A snugly-fitting parking spot found
Bleary eyes blink blankly
Still far too early
Students trickle towards the doors
I hope it’s early enough to avoid curious students
The Moat is Crossed
(The castle is stormed)
Hand clenched ‘round my coffee cup
I plunge through the door
Will someone stop me?
Do I look old enough?
Formatia Trans Sicere Educatorum
Visitor’s log is filled in
A secretary hands me a visitor’s badge
Another secretary takes the visitor’s badge back
A visitor’s badge is for visitors and I’m no longer one of those
I’m given a key!
w00t!
That’s right, a key!
Suck it Whigs.
Heading to the classroom
The halls are empty and cavernous
I meet the other house teachers
They smile and offer encouragement
A few last minutes of peace fly away
The Bell shatters the silence
It’s electric warble more insistent than the one earlier
The halls are cavernous no longer
Students mill and stampede simultaneously
Combinations spin, doors open
Books grabbed, make-up and hair checked
Doors close, voices shriek
A line forms outside the classroom
Students peer at a new face
Turning to one another they seek news
Attentions quickly wander and weekends are discussed
The school day follows
Periods begin and end
Seats fill and empty
A day passes in a blur
Blurred days creep on
Slowly names are learned
Personalities encountered
Comfort found
The student teacher starts by watching
Just like the 100 hours of observations
I start with one class and then move to two
Soon my day entire is spent in the front of class
Perhaps I am a teacher
